UPDATE: 2 p.m.<\/p>\n
The pace is picking up on staged re-entry into Summerland for evacuees of the devastating Bald Range wildfire.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m planning on rolling with a larger area than originally planned tomorrow (Aug. 16),\u201d Summerland CAO Graham Statt said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not going to be all of Summerland. We have damaged areas, we still have areas with downed power lines. But for the areas further away from the fire and the least impacted, we\u2019re bundling those together and trying to go faster.\u201d<\/p>\n
Statt\u2019s comments come one day after residents of Trout Creek, for properties east of Highway 97, were told they could return home.<\/p>\n
He cited feeling better about the community\u2019s waste water facility and its ability to handle larger groups of residents when speaking of re-entry.<\/p>\n
The 20,553-hectare blaze, now in its second week, remains out of control.<\/p>\n
BC Wildfire Service says it\u2019s optimistic about favourable conditions west of Highway 97 on Saturday, \u201cwith suppression efforts progressing well.\u201d <\/p>\n
Close to 380 firefighters will be on scene, split between day and night shifts. There are also 16 helicopters responding to the blaze.<\/p>\n
On the southern flank of the fire \u2014 the Mt. Conkle and Shingle Creek Road areas \u2014 crews say they\u2019re making good progress establishing and reinforcing control lines.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese control lines remove or reduce available fuel, helping to slow or limit the spread of the wildfire,\u201d BCWS said in an update.<\/p>\n
Statt, however, says the community\u2019s landfill is a \u201cgrowing concern,\u201d with large quantities of composted material on fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very hard to put out,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it also has engaged other areas of the landfill that could be producing things we don\u2019t like to breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Statt added: \u201cAs we talk about staged re-entry of these areas, this landfill could slow some areas down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Highway 97 between Penticton and Peachland remains open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with a speed restriction of 70 km\/h.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know people want to get back to their homes, and we\u2019re going to try and accommodate that,\u201d Statt said. <\/p>\n
UPDATE: 12:35 p.m. <\/p>\n
The Bald Range Wildfire near Summerland has surpassed 20,000 hectares in size. <\/p>\n
In the latest update from BCWS at 12:20 p.m., the blaze is marked at 20,553 hectares and is burning out of control. <\/p>\n
The wildfire of note has forced nine evacuation orders and 12 evacuation alerts since its discovery on Aug. 7. <\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s response to the fire includes an incident management team, 24-hour coverage from 376 firefighting personnel split between day and night shifts, as well as 16 helicopters, 59 pieces of heavy equipment and 115 structure protection personnel. <\/p>\n
\u201cFirefighters continue to make good progress along the northern flank. If weather conditions allow, crews will conduct hand ignitions to remove unburnt fuel between the fire\u2019s edge and established control lines,\u201d said BCWS.<\/p>\n
\u201cStructure protection personnel and firefighters remain active around structures within the fire perimeter, patrolling and extinguishing hotspots as they flare up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Firefighting efforts are coming from all sides of the wildfire, including the reinforcement of control lines in the southern flank, suppression efforts at the eastern and western flanks, with heavy equipment continuing to support indirect attack operations near the Princeton-Summerland road corridor. <\/p>\n
Firefighters are doing the best they can to protect structures, using a mix of firefighters, heavy equipment and helicopters. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe continue to work closely with utility, local government and transportation partners to restore services and maintain safe working conditions for crews. This includes coordinating directly with BC Hydro to support the ongoing restoration of damaged infrastructure,\u201d said BCWS.<\/p>\n
\u201cRockfall and downed trees along roadways continue to present safety hazards. We are coordinating with our partners to support safe access for crews conducting restoration and wildfire response activities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Black Press Media will update the story when more information becomes available.<\/p>\n
ORIGINAL: 10:13 a.m. <\/p>\n
Around 370 firefighters and 15 helicopters are battling the Bald Range wildfire, one day after some evacuation orders related to the blaze were downgraded to alerts.<\/p>\n
Residents in the Trout Creek neighbourhood of Summerland, for properties east of Highway 97, were told they could go home early Friday afternoon. Evacuation orders for all properties in the Peachland and Electoral Area West areas were also downgraded to alerts.<\/p>\n
All other previously issued evacuation orders are still in effect, as of Saturday morning, Aug. 15.<\/p>\n
The Bald Range wildfire, entering its second week, is 19,891 hectares in size. It remains out of control after being discovered on Aug. 7, 15 kilometres west of Summerland.<\/p>\n
Hugh Murdoch, incident commander, said Friday that crews have had \u201creally good success\u201d in knocking down the fire perimeter closest to the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s still a portion of it, especially in the northwest, where the fire is spreading out into more traditional wildland forest topography,\u201d Murdoch said. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be a good firefight out in that area.\u201d<\/p>\n
Overnight, crews worked in the Shingle Creek Road area, conducting hand ignitions \u201cwhere weather conditions allow,\u201d BC Wildfire Service said in an update.<\/p>\n
More than 100 structure protection personnel continued to patrol areas, extinguish hotspots and maintain structure protection systems.<\/p>\n
Close to 60 pieces of heavy equipment are also responding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be here for the foreseeable future,\u201d Murdoch said. \u201cWe\u2019re still bringing in new resources, and there\u2019s a lot of work to be done.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe might not be front and centre visible, because we\u2019ll be in the forested areas, but you\u2019ll be seeing the helicopters and planes and note that crews will still be working in these areas moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UPDATE: 2 p.m. The pace is picking up on staged re-entry into Summerland for evacuees of the devastating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":859819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,79004,87674,6090],"class_list":["post-859818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-okanagan","tag-surrey","tag-wildfires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}